How to Filter Country in Google Analytics

Knowing where your website visitors come from is one of the most powerful insights you can get from your analytics. Filtering your data by country helps you understand your audience, tailor your marketing, and discover untapped markets. This guide will walk you through exactly how to filter by country in both Google Analytics 4 and the older Universal Analytics (UA).

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Why Should You Filter Analytics Data by Country?

Isolating traffic from specific countries isn't reinventing the wheel - it's like putting on a new pair of glasses that brings your most important audiences into focus. When you zero in on geographic segments, you can start making smarter marketing decisions.

Here are a few practical reasons to start filtering by country:

• Optimize Marketing Spend: Are your international Facebook Ad campaigns actually driving traffic and conversions from the right countries? Filtering lets you see exactly which regions are responding best, so you can double down on what works and cut wasted ad spend.
• Tailor Content and Offers: A visitor from Australia might have different seasonal interests than one from Canada. By understanding where your audience is, you can serve them more relevant content, promotions, and products, leading to higher engagement and sales.
• Identify Expansion Opportunities: Notice a surprising amount of traffic and conversions from a country you aren't actively targeting? That's a clear signal you may have found a new potential market ready and waiting for you.
• Improve Website Experience: High traffic but low conversions from a specific country could indicate issues with shipping costs, currency options, or language. Filtering helps you spot these user experience gaps so you can fix them.

Filtering by country turns abstract data into an actionable roadmap for growing your business.

How to Filter a Country in Google Analytics 4

GA4 is the current standard for Google Analytics, and it offers a couple of straightforward ways to view your data by country. We'll cover the two most common methods: using standard reports and building a custom Exploration.

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Method 1: Using Standard Reports for a Quick View

The fastest way to see country-specific data is within the pre-built reports. This is perfect for quick lookups and high-level analysis.

1. Navigate to the Reports section (the bar-chart icon on the left-hand navigation menu).
2. Under the User collection, click on Demographics > Demographic details.
3. By default, you’ll see the primary dimension is set to "Country." This table immediately shows you top-level metrics like Users, Sessions, and Engagement rate broken down by country.

Adding a Secondary Dimension for Deeper Insight

To make this report more useful, you can add a secondary dimension. This helps you understand how users from a certain country found your website.

1. Just above the data table, click the blue "+" icon to add a new dimension.
2. In the search box, type "Session source / medium" and select it.
3. The table will now update to show you both the country and the marketing channel your visitors came from. For example, you can now see users from the United Kingdom who arrived via "google / cpc" versus "direct / (none)."

Method 2: Building a Custom Report with Explorations

When you need more flexibility or want to save a specific report for future use, GA4’s Explore section is the way to go. This allows you to build custom reports from scratch.

Let's say you want to build a simple report to see sessions and conversions from your top 5 countries.

1. Click the Explore icon (it looks like a blank canvas with charts) on the left-hand menu.
2. Click on "Free form" to start a new exploration.
3. Give your exploration a name, like "Country Performance Report."
4. Add Your Dimensions: In the Dimensions panel on the left, click the "+" icon. Search for and import "Country". Press the "Import" button in the top right.
5. Add Your Metrics: In the Metrics panel, click the "+" icon. Search for and import metrics like "Sessions" and "Conversions." Press "Import."
6. Build the Report:

Your report will instantly populate, showing you sessions and conversions for all countries.

Filtering the Exploration Report for Specific Countries

Now, let's filter this custom report to only show data for specific countries, such as the United States and Canada.

1. At the bottom of the left-hand panel, find the "Filters" section.
2. Drag the "Country" dimension into the filter box.
3. Set the filter conditions. For the match type, select "matches regex."
4. In the value box, enter the countries you want to see, separated by a pipe character "|". For example: United States|Canada|United Kingdom
5. Click "Apply."

The report will now only display data for the countries you specified. The great thing about explorations is that you can save them and access them anytime without having to rebuild the report.

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How to Filter a Country in Universal Analytics (UA)

If you're still working with historical data from Universal Analytics, the process is just as simple. The interface is a bit different, but the core concepts are the same.

1. From the main menu, navigate to Audience > Geo > Location.
2. This report automatically shows you performance by country, with key metrics like Users, New Users, and Bounce Rate.

Applying a Simple Filter in UA

The table shows you all countries by default. To focus on one or more countries, you can use the search bar or an advanced filter.

• Using the Search Bar (Easiest Method): Right above the data table is a search bar. Simply type the name of the country you want to see, like "Germany," and hit enter. The table will filter instantly.
• Using an Advanced Filter: For more complex filtering (e.g., showing all countries except one), click the "advanced" link next to the search bar. Here, you can create rules like Include / Exclude > Country > Containing to pinpoint the exact data you need.

Advanced Tips and Practical Examples

Once you've mastered the basics, you can start asking more complex questions. Here are a couple of powerful techniques and real-world scenarios.

Create Comparisons in GA4 to Analyze Two Countries Side-by-Side

Comparisons let you view one segment of your data against another. This is incredibly useful for benchmarking performance between two different countries.

1. In any standard report (like 'Demographic details'), look for the "Add comparison" button at the top of the screen.
2. In the panel that opens, build your first segment.
3. Click "Add new comparison" and repeat the process for another country, like Canada.
4. Click "Apply."

GA4 will now display all the data side-by-side, making it easy to see which country has a higher engagement rate, more conversions, or longer session durations.

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Example: Find Out Which Countries Drive E-commerce Sales

Imagine you're running an e-commerce store and want to see where your revenue is coming from.

In GA4, you'd go to Reports > Monetization > E-commerce purchases. The default table shows sales by item name. Click the blue "+" icon to add Country as a secondary dimension to see the country associated with each purchase. You can then quickly sort this report to see which countries are driving the highest revenue.

Final Thoughts

Filtering by country in Google Analytics is a fundamental skill for anyone looking to make data-driven marketing decisions. Whether you're using a quick filter in a standard GA4 report or building a detailed comparison, isolating this geographic data helps you understand your global audience and optimize your strategies for real growth.

Manually building these reports in Google Analytics is just one piece of the puzzle. Once you answer one question, another one always pops up, and you're back to filtering, adding dimensions, and trying to connect the dots with data from your ads platforms or CRM. We built Graphed to remove this friction entirely. Instead of clicking through menus, you can connect your data sources and simply ask, "Show me my total revenue by country for the last 90 days from Shopify and Google Analytics." It's the same insight in a fraction of the time.